The Drowned City
by fleurilia
Summary: Aurelia de la Bourliére has always been odd. She dreams of a drowned city where the rivers run with blood and the buildings are built on bones. And as she claws her way through Europe, trying to reach the camp her mother told her about before she was murdered, she begins to realize that there are strange forces at play, calling out to her and asking her to come with them.


Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan or am in anyway associated with him. The PJO series is not my own (we can pretend though, right?) and anything that you may recognize is not mine.

**Prologue**

_Gordes, France_

A woman walked in the shadows of Gordes at night. Her footsteps echoed on the cobblestone street as the small girl next to her had to hurry to keep up with her.

"My feet hurt, _maman_," The child complained.

"Hush, _ma chère_," The woman chided. "We'll be there soon."

The girl swung her hand with her mothers, a small bounce in her step as she skipped forward and parted her lips to speak, when she stumbled over a pebble in the road and tripped - her knees skidding over the cobblestone.

When the child scrambled back to her feet, her mother chided her for tearing a hole in her stockings. "That's the third pair this month, Aurelia."

"Sorry, _maman_," The girl answered sheepishly.

Her mother took her hand in her own, pulling her along as she slipped onto another street, pausing to let her eyes dart around the street they'd just fled.

"_Maman_," The girl said. "I thought we were going to visit Sophie today. I wanted to show her my new -,"

"Tomorrow, then." The woman's voice was hurried and tinged with a sense of urgency, but it was soft.

"Oh," The girl said as she began to skip again, pausing every few feet to take quick steps to keep up with her mother's strides. "Promise?"

The woman squeezed the child's hand gently. "Yes, and tomorrow is market day so perhaps we can even buy those pastries you like so much."

"Oh, one for Sophie too?" The girl squealed.

"Perhaps," Her mother answered. "But maybe I'll just give yours to Sophie. After all, _she_ didn't tear her stockings -"

"_Maman!_"The child cried in horror.

"Oh, I'm only teasing," The woman said with a small smile, loosely tugging one of the girl's dark braids, but her voice was still wrought with tension. "Look, we're almost home, see?"

The small house was wedged between two identical ones, slightly larger so that they cast a shadow between them that made the home look more foreboding than it appeared, despite the blue painted shudders and the flowers in the windows - both attributes that the young girl had coaxed her mother into.

The woman suddenly glanced back the way they'd come, as if she'd caught sight of something lurking there, but then took a shuddering breath to calm herself.

"Is something wrong, _maman_?" The child asked.

"No, _ma chère,_ of course not," She said in a quiet voice but her eyes still darted around, flitting amongst the shadows. "Come, let's go inside."

As she fussed with the key with trembling fingers, the worn door gave easily under her hand, swinging open slowly to reveal the dark room inside.

"Look, _maman_," The girl chirped, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "It's already open."

But as the girl dropped her mother's hand and skipped forward, the woman, half-frozen in terror, cried out.

"_Aurelia!_" She yelled, reaching to clasp her daughter's arm and pull her back, but she was too late.

A screeching sound seemed to come from all directions at once and then a dark shape burst from the doorway, slamming into the child and sending her flying into the air, before landing across the narrow street with a distinctive cracking noise.

The child's surprised scream became a howl of pain as she nursed her limp arm, hanging at an unnatural angle at her side.

The woman's eyes widened in horror and she dove to put herself between the creature and her child. Her fingers fumbled along the edge of her skirt before latching around the hilt of a sharp blade.

She brandished the knife in her hands and brushed her long, dark hair out of her eyes in a hasty gesture, adopting a defensive stance.

The child wailed.

"Aurelia, I need you to listen to me, okay?" The woman's voice was shaking, but she didn't take her eyes off of the creature in front of her as it measured her up and tensed, as if ready to spring at her.

"_Maman_," The little girl cried. "_Maman_, I'm scared."

"We're playing a game,ma chère,"The woman said. "Like you do with Sophie -,"

The creature leaped at her and she slashed at its foreleg, sending it sprawling back a few feet with shriek of pain.

The girl screamed, stumbling to her feet.

"_Maman_," She cried. "I don't like this game."

The woman's voice cracked as she spoke. "It's fun, I promise. All you have to do is run and find somewhere to hide until I come for you."

Shapes moved in the darkness past the doorway, stirring as the injured creature began to struggle back to its feet.

The girl screamed again, stumbling backwards.

"They're playing too," The woman's voice was desperate and tears slipped down her cheeks but she forced herself to smile at her daughter. "We all have to find you, once you're hidden."

The girl sniffed. "Like hide-and-go-seek?"

"Yes," The woman answered. "Exactly like hide-and-go-seek. Now run, Aurelia, before time's up."

"No," The child answered. "No, I want you to come with me. Please."

"That's against the rules," The woman said.

"B-but you hurt that thing. What if it hurts you?"

"I didn't hurt it," The woman said, as the creature stumbled to balance it's weight. "See? It's fine."

The child couldn't make out the creature very well in the dark, but it resembled some sort of grotesque human with a deformed body and unusually shaped head.

A smaller shape appeared in the doorway, about the size of the child but bulkier and in resemblance to the creature outside.

"See? Sophie's here too. She wants to play."

The creature made a series of clicking noises which were echoed by the moving shapes inside.

Both creatures stepped forward.

"Sophie?" The small girl asked. "Are you sure that's you?"

"She can't answer you, _ma chère_. It's against the rules," The woman said.

The creature scuttled forward, but the woman stepped in front of the child's view.

"It's time for you to hide now. Are you ready to run?"

"_Maman_ -,"

"I'll be along in a moment to find you -"

"Promise?"

"_Oui, je promets_," The woman said gently, slipping a piece of paper into the child's hand. "Here, take this. Don't ever lose it. Now go, and if you hide _really _well, far away from here, I'll buy you _two_pastries at the market tomorrow, okay? But you have to go now, _ma chère_. Ready? Three, two, one -,"

The girl ran.

The woman sobbed.

Author's Note

hey hi hello, i'm sorry this is so short. I was going to add the first chapter on with it but that chapter is too long already as it is so i'll put it up separately.

thank you for reading, have a nice day & please comment, i will buy you grapes (maybe)

p.s. the story does not start out as dark as the summary suggests (a fact that will be made evident in the next chapter), although it will eventually spiral down that way.


End file.
